Affordable Insulin Now Act

Hey guys, it’s Elizabeth Hanawalt. And I’m coming to you all again to do a report. This is a legislative report, so I think everybody needs to hear this. 

The US House of Representatives has passed the bill, the H.R. Bill 6833, known as the Affordable Insulin Now Act, and it passed 232 to 193. Who the 193 is I have no idea, why would they try to block it I have no idea. So according to the bill, beginning on January 1st, 2023, your health plans and health insurance offering coverage cannot require Americans with diabetes to pay more than 35 dollars or the amount equal to 5% of the negotiated price of the selected insulin product, whichever is cheapest.

H.R. Bill 6833 will now be sent to the US Senate for approval. For Medicare prescription drug plan, insulin products would be capped at 35 dollars from October 1st 2022 to January 1st 2024. And then the lesser of 35 dollars or 25% of the plan’s negotiated price thereafter. 

Dr. Hirsch MD, professor of Medicine at University of Washington School of Medicine, said while he believes that the bill will be a major step for relief for Americans with diabetes, more work needs to be done to combat the rising cost of insulin and Congress still must address the underlying problems of soaring insulin costs, which has tripled over the last 15 years. So I’m sure a lot of y’all have seen this. I mean you know, especially when the Epipen skyrocketed so did the biologics, and insulin being one of them.

Dr. Hirsch says we need to be cautious in passing this as a stand alone measure without including additional protection that addresses rising prices, prevent premium increases, which will probably happen, or result in a rising rate of insured Americans. So there’s some good news and that it's just that’s not all that has to be done. The source of this article is Endocrine Today in May. 

Well, I thought I could give y’all a little bit of good news. And hopefully this will go through the Senate. So… everybody starts praying. Talk to you later. 

What do you think about the Affordable Insulin Now Act? Reach out and send me a message, I'd love to hear!